50th Anniversary Party, Final Post

Mama started with a story of when she was 18. "I was helping a blind lady, and when I lifted her to her feet, she said, 'You're a hefty girl, aren't you? Is that why you're not married yet?" Stunned by the lady's rudeness but still composed, my mom replied, "Well, I'm not THAT hefty, and no, I have my reasons. For one, I'm only 18, and for another, I'm in nursing school, and for another I have not found the man I want to marry."

The blind lady asked,"Tell me what sort of man you're hoping to find."
Mama replied, "First, he must love God. He must be educated beyond high school. He must be well-groomed and not a drinker or smoker. And he must be a man already, not a boy. So many of my friends married boys right out of high school. I'm not interested in marrying anyone who is not a man already."

"Hmph. Well, as time goes on, you'll get less particular," declared the old blind curmudgeon.

My mom said she had no plans to become less particular ,but had faith that God would bring her such a man of high caliber. Within a year she met my dad. Three weeks later they were engaged, and seven months later, married.

One day Mama's older brother came for a visit soon after their wedding and declared, "Sis, ya done good. If anyone's gonna be taking care of you, I'm glad it's Lyle."













Daddy started out by telling a lot of marriage jokes. One after another after another till our sides split. Then he folded his paper, put it in his pocket and said, "All joking aside, let me be serious now. When I was a single young man ,I had but one request for God about a wife: 'Give me the best woman in the world.' And He did. Every day for the last fifty years, when I've awakened with Brenda at my side, I thank God for answering my prayer."














For the record, the bottles we
served contained sparkling grape
juice, no alcohol. Daddy didn't
want little plastic champagne
glasses, either, that would "look
like liquor." So we used plastic
tumblers, which made it impossible to "clink" when we wanted to get
the guests' attention for toasts.
I dared Andrea to use her manly ranch whistle, but Rachel stifled my suggestion. Thank God. I'm telling you, we can put on and put off airs just like that!











































































Soon after their speeches ended, we sisters realized we'd forgotten to prepare our toasts. We'd been so busy planning and doing other things, that we didn't sit down and write out our toasts or really mentally formulate them. So, we "winged it," every last one of us!


We went in birth order with our toasts. I don't remember what Rachel said because I was too nervous thinking of what I would say .You know how that goes. Oh, well.
Whatever she said was eloquent, I'm sure.



My toast was a bit sappy. The emotions were hard to contain as I thanked God publicly for answering my prayer that my parents would live to celebrate at least 50 years of marriage together. I also said that I appreciate their perseverance because marriage is not easy. It's work and it can be tempting to give up when it's hard.


Andrea stood and said, "I'm not one for speeches so I'll make this brief. If it wasn't for you, Mom and Dad, I wouldn't be here. So thanks!" and she quickly sat down while everyone just howled.
























Then Jill stood up and said, "Well, that's a hard act to follow, but I did...!"


Oh, the hilarious baby of the family!






























Jill's friend Pam (whom she's known for 23 years) delivered the cake, snow and all:) Yay!


Thanks to Pam, the cake was beautiful and delicious. Vanilla on the top layer for my mom,
chocolate on the bottom for my dad.

We all cut it together (more or less).




















To quote the late Paul Harvey, "And now you
know...the rest of the story. Good day."